This weekend (29 September – 1 October) it’s back to Donington Park, as the Bennetts British Superbike Championship reaches its penultimate round of the 2023 season, where the FHO Racing BMW Motorrad team are targeting success.
Landing a podium spot earlier in the year at the Leicestershire track aboard the BMW M 1000 RR and after a good run of recent results, Josh Brookes is hoping to waste no time in the opening practice sessions and get his weekend off to a strong start.
It’s been a mixed season for Josh and his FHO teammate Peter Hickman; after a positive start with Josh victorious at Silverstone and then Oulton Park, he went on to claim a podium at Donington and despite the initial success, the team have since struggled to optimise the set-up of the M 1000 RR resulting in what has been a somewhat challenging year.
Away from the Superbike class, the ABK Beer 0% BMW Motorrad F 900 R Cup returns with FHO Racing’s Richard Cooper leading the standings after dominating the class throughout the season. Enjoying a strong round last time out at Cadwell Park, Kate Walker will be looking to continue where she left off.
Meanwhile, the weekend marks the season final and the last time the HEL Performance British Junior Supersport Class will be in action in BSB, where Denise dal Zotto, Holly Harris and Jamie Hanks-Elliott will be striving for their best performances.
BSB action gets underway tomorrow (Friday 29 September) with the first free practice at 12.45. Qualifying and the opening race of the weekend takes place on Saturday (30 September), with Race 2 and Race 3 on Sunday (01 October). Click here for the full weekend schedule.
Josh Brookes:
“I’m expecting good things for Donington Park this weekend, we are coming off the back of a good run of results in the last couple of races, so I think we can build on that. We raced there earlier in the year, so we’ve got some good ideas of how the BMW works at that venue, so we should be able to just turn up, get started at fine tuning and not lose too much time on the base settings. Saying that, you can never guarantee anything, so I have to bear that in mind too, but the expectations going into the weekend are high and I hope we can have three strong races and continue our recent good form.”
Peter Hickman:
“Thoughts for Donington; ‘must go faster!’ I want to get there and just get going, the team as always are working really hard behind the scenes, but it’s just not going the way we want it to really. We’ll keep trying and I can assure everyone it’s not down to a lack of trying by myself or anyone in the team, just for some reason it’s not clicking. Donington at the start of the season was a tough test, so we need to change that around this time. I’m usually pretty good at Donington, but both Josh and I struggled, although Josh did manage to end up on the podium, so hopefully that’s a glimmer of hope, and something we can repeat for the both of us this coming weekend.”
Faye Ho – Team Principal:
“We arrive this weekend at another circuit we have already raced at this season, so I think we should be able to get up to speed quite quickly, having already raced there and secured a podium earlier in the year. Racing can be super frustrating at times, especially when it’s not going to plan, and this season it’s not been going our way. Our focus now has to be round by round and doing the best job we can and trying to finish the 2023 season in style.”
